Android numbers are out – Gingerbread down, Jelly Bean up.

The February numbers are out for the distribution of Android versions across the over half a billion devices out there. Basically it appears that trends from previous months are continuing or in other words the instances of devices running Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread and Honeycomb is continuing to decline in usage as either more devices have their software upgraded or people upgrade to new devices running later versions of Android.

Android Version

January

February

1.6 (Donut)

0.2%

0.2%

2.1(Eclair)

2.4%

2.2%

2.3-2.3.2(Gingerbread)

0.2%

0.2%

2.3.3-2.3.7(Gingerbread)

47.4%

45.4%

3.1(HoneyComb)

0.4%

0.3%

3.2(HoneyComb)

1.1%

1.0%

4.0.3-4.0.4(Ice Cream Sandwich)

29.1%

29.0%

4.1(Jelly Bean)

9.0%

12.2%

4.2(Jelly Bean)

1.2%

1.4%

(Edit: Got the numbers for Honeycomb mixed around, updated now)

So there you have it, Android 4.X devices are certainly proliferating and with the sub-$50 Ice Cream Sandwich running Huawei Ascend Y201 popping up at Coles a couple of weeks back it’s a sign that Gingerbread is definitely in decline as the go-to OS for the mass market phone makers.

I’m also offering cash to anyone who still has a device running Cupcake right here and now. Tweet me, email me, Google+ me, anything! I intend to start a Cupcake based user group to skew the numbers, we only need half a million or so of us.

Daniel Tyson Editor

Dan is a die-hard Android fan. Some might even call him a lunatic. He's been an Android user since Android was a thing, and if there's a phone that's run Android, chances are he owns it (his Nexus collection is second-to-none) or has used it.

Dan's dedication to Ausdroid is without question, and he has represented us at some of the biggest international events in our industry including Google I/O, Mobile World Congress, CES and IFA.

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this has nothing to do with updates, Just new devices being released with 4.x this makes the old devices % reduce…..i still feel bad that my galaxy 7.7 is struck with ICS and no jellybean (upgraded to ICS from UK rom..there is no ICS update for 7.7 wifi only in Australia yet)

is it safe enough to brand google’s software rollout system a complete failure now? almost half of android users are on a version that is over two years old, aka 5-6 versions behind the current one. this is a joke that android users (of which i am a rabid one) seem to gloss over.

“google’s software rollout system a complete failure ” nah, totally disagree. Google are the only ones doing it right … they release phones with the latest Android version. It’s all the other manufacturers (Nexus excluded) that are doing it wrong. As Graham mentioned, the majority of Android users don’t care anyway. They probably don’t even know there is a newer version.

Well, the abundance of handsets that are on the market using old versions of Android is not exactly Googles fault. It is due to the open nature of the OS, unfortunately whilst the code is out there for anyone to use there will always be handsets that are left for dead. That said, it’s a fine line for Google to walk with regards to keeping Android alive, open and accessible for as many people as possible whilst exerting pressure to maintain the OS version. Also, I have Android handsets which I don’t believe would handle the upgrade from Gingerbread to… Read more »

It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s not one that has a magic bullet solution. Google can’t FORCE hardware manufacturers to provide software upgrades for old devices, and they have very little incentive to update them.

Most people don’t care what version of Android their phone is running, and OEMs would prefer that people buy a new phone instead.